


All These Things I've Done

by Falling_into_oblivion



Series: A Lesson in Futility- Various Unrelated Thiam Fics [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Adventures, Caring, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, Hallucinations, M/M, Post-Canon, Sort Of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-07-10 18:32:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15955079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Falling_into_oblivion/pseuds/Falling_into_oblivion
Summary: When Scott sent Theo and Liam off to Ireland to find a mystical weapon that was hidden at the end of a supposedly magical rainbow, Theo knew it would be a disaster from the very beginning. Considering that they had very tenuous leads to go on, their biggest one hanging on a pack of werewolves who hated their guts and had ended up chasing them across half of Ireland, Theo figured he was well justified in his scepticism.Nevertheless, he and Liam did find the end of the rainbow, though the weapon wasn't what either of them were expecting.





	All These Things I've Done

**Author's Note:**

> Pre-warning: Theo hallucinates Tara ripping his heart out at some point in this fic.   
> And yes, the title does come from The Killers song of the same name- it's one of my favourites...

Ireland was a beautiful country. It was full of long, winding roads, rolling hills, miles of fields and a lot of open road between towns. Ireland was also the last place Theo Raeken wanted to be right then, especially when it was Liam Goddamn Dunbar trudging along beside him. Theo didn’t necessarily have a problem with Liam. No, Liam was just a little shit of a werewolf with anger issues who liked punching him, which didn’t make him the ideal travel partner, particularly when they were trying to track down the elusive end of a rainbow. So, maybe he did have a problem with him after all.

Now, when Scott had initially contacted Liam and told him he’d be going to Ireland to look for the end of the rainbow- apparently there was some kind of weapon there that could be used to keep Beacon Hills safe- Theo had had a good laugh about it. He’d had several good jokes about leprechauns and pots of gold which lasted all the way up until Scott- the Goddamn traitorous bastard, which was saying a lot coming from Theo- told him he was to be going with Liam.

Following that there had been the packing, convincing the Geyers that a hiking trip across the Irish countryside was perfectly ideal for spring break and exactly what Liam and Theo needed, and then the actual travelling-to-Ireland part. Now, it wasn’t exactly like Theo hated all forms of air travel, but it was exactly that, and it didn’t help when all Liam did was laugh at him, though he did shut up for a while after Theo slammed his head into the fold-out tray in front of them.

It hadn’t gotten much better once they actually landed. They’d eventually found the pack that Scott said might have information a little ways outside of Wexford, not that they had been too informative. They were suspicious of outsiders, and though they had operated with the idea that Theo would do the sweet-talking and Liam would shut up and look pretty that had all gone out of the window when Liam had snapped and gone for one of their betas after he- of all the things he could have possibly done- _insulted_ Theo.

So, they’d been driven even further away from Wexford by a very large and very pissed off pack of werewolves until they ended up in Mullingar, and from there they’d gone on foot after catching sight of the rainbow and had been tracking it ever since. Considering it had been two weeks since they’d left Mullingar and three days from their last warm meal they were both now very tired, very hungry and- hey, you guessed it- _very_ pissed off.

“I’ve lost signal again,” Liam called out, feet pounding as he ran to catch up to him, bringing with him the sharp, musty scent of his sweat. “We’re also out of beef jerky.”

“We’re out of beef jerky because you ate it all about five seconds before you caught up to me,” Theo sighed, running a hand through his too-long hair as they drew to a stop, but making sure to keep an eye on the sky above and the rainbow that shone there, knowing all too well by now how easy it was to lose it.

“You see the bend?” Liam pointed up at the portion of the rainbow that they were situated under. “I think we must be nearing the end. We’ve been at this for ages, anyway. Spring break ended over a week ago and my mum’s probably freaking out because I haven’t been in touch, I’m tired, hungry and my feet hurt. Plus, I want to get back so I can punch Scott in the face.”

“I think he would see that coming,” Theo smirked, just slightly, his own desire to have Scott McCall have his ass handed to him heightened. “You’d have to come up with a much more creative revenge than that.”

“Oh, like turning his pack against him and then murdering him when things didn’t go his way,” Liam rolled his eyes, before catching Theo’s wince. “Okay, so still too soon for pre-hell Theo jokes.”

“That was never for revenge, anyway,” Theo sighed once more, and they carried on along the path in silence.

Liam was right; the rainbow was curving slightly downwards, and as they reached the crest of yet another hill they saw the end disappear into a copse of trees less than a mile away.

“We found it,” Liam breathed, reaching out to clutch at Theo’s arm even as they stumbled down the hill before breaking out into a flat-out run, feet pounding the dirt as they stumbled, clinging onto one another with their packs thumping against their backs and sheer relief fuelling them.

If it was any other situation, Theo would have been embarrassed at the elated howl that tore free from his throat as he gripped Liam back just as hard, skidding over the mud and crashing into one another as they ran, but as it was he was just as tired, worn out and hungry as Liam complained of being, so he didn’t much care about his appearance just then. He instead let the elation fill him up, freeing in how open it made him and how brighter everything seemed for it, and how warm Liam felt under the tight clench of his fingers around his arm.

They stopped just at the beginning of the treeline, panting as they leant against one another, both equally unsure of what to do next now that they were actually close to the end of the rainbow. They may have been following it for weeks now, but some part of Theo thought that they would never reach the end.

“Did Scott mention what this weapon was supposed to be?” Theo eventually asked, if only to fill the silence, despite already knowing the answer.

“No, just that he thought it could be useful in protecting Beacon Hills,” Liam replied anyway, despite knowing that Theo knew the answer

Theo wrinkled his nose slightly as the sweet, rotting scent that had been coming from the trees and only seemed to grow stronger as they travelled down the hill sharpened even further.

“We should probably go into the trees. It looks like the rainbow ends there.”

“Way to state the obvious, pup,” Theo sighed, stretching his arms above his head and rolling his shoulders to try and work out some of the ache, groaning when something in his lower back popped and not missing the intense way that Liam glanced at him before turning back to the trees with a slight flush to his cheeks.  _Interesting._ “Let’s get this over with then.”

Together they took a step into the trees. The effect was instantaneous. One moment they were at the edge of the trees, the leaves turning the sunlight a dappled green, and the next they were in near-darkness, trees all around them but for a thin trail just in front.

“Nowhere to go but on,” he reminded Liam when the other paused, pulse jumping along with his nerves, panic quickly setting in. “Whatever this weapon is, it’s not exactly going to be activated right now. We’ll be fine.”

“I’d be more reassured if I couldn’t smell the anxiety on you,” Liam snapped, but his heartrate returned to normal and they continued on together.

It only seemed to grow darker the further along they travelled on the trail, the trees almost like they were pressing in on them, and Theo didn’t try and shrug Liam off this time when he grabbed for his jacket sleeve, the fact that he would never live it down if they made it out alive being the only thing that stopped him from grabbing onto Liam right back. The same rotting, sweet sense as before was cloying in the air, which was thick in their lungs.

“Hey, can you hear that?” he murmured, and they both paused, ears straining.

There it was again, a slow, constant dripping sound, like some kind of liquid was falling to splatter on the ground, repeating in a staccato rhythm that was slowly driving him insane.

“Theo,” Liam said, a little uncertainly as his heartrate picked up again, pulse pounding so loud it almost drowned out the _drip, drip, dripping_. “Theo, I can’t hear anything.”

“Then you’re more incompetent than I previously thought,” he ground out, forgoing any sense of composure as he reached across, covering Liam’s hand on his jacket, claws digging into his skin. “How can you not _hear_ this? It’s driving me insane.”

“Some would argue you already crossed that line,” Liam said, albeit a little weakly, whining low in his throat when Theo dug his claws in just a little harder. “Do you think this weapon has some sort of protection? Maybe it’s trying to keep you- _us_ \- away.”

“How nice of you to include yourself in that statement when whatever it is is so clearly targeting _me_ ,” he ground out, before taking a few more steps forward, practically dragging Liam with him. “Whatever is dripping, you better hope it doesn’t want you, too.”

“It?” Liam whined again, though it turned into more of a growl by the end, his agitation almost as thick as the rotting scent. “How do you- Theo, can you just-“

Theo was the one to growl this time as Liam ripped his hand away, cursing at the deep furrows that his claws left in his skin, though it healed over a few seconds after.

They continued on after that in a tense sort of silence, both making sure to keep their distance from each other this time around, all sense straining to hear or smell or see something out of the ordinary. It was after a few minutes of that awkward silence that a rather terrifying thought occurred to him.

“Liam, what can you smell?”

“Smell?” Liam repeated, as though the concept was foreign to him, his foot coming down hard on a twig, the snap echoing throughout the trees. “Normal woods smells- you know, the trees, the decaying leaves on the ground, animal tracks… this isn’t like the dripping sound, is it?”

“I don’t know,” Theo frowned, still moving, but now much slower, a little less eager to get to his destination now. “I could smell it from the hill, before we even walked past the treeline, and the dripping didn’t start until we were already in here. It’s sort of sweet, but cloying, like rotting fruit…”

“So we found the end of the rainbow, but you’re hallucinating-“ Theo shot him the dirtiest look that he could muster, but it must not have been as effective in the dim light because Liam simply rolled his eyes, “-or something, and maybe whatever this weapon is, it doesn’t want to be found.”

“If that was the case it would be affecting you, too,” he retaliated, “and seeing how you aren’t currently losing your mind-“ he stopped when another sharp crack of a twig snapping echoed through the trees, and the dripping grew louder, as though whatever was making the noise was suddenly closer.

“Theo?” Liam asked again, a little uncertain. “Did you hear something again?”

“Something is in here with us,” he nodded, cocking his head as he strained to hear something else- _anything_ else- but was met with nothing but that steady, constant dripping and another sharp crack of a twig. “Nearby, too. It’s getting louder- twigs snapping- and the smell is stronger. Whatever it is, I think it’s making the smell, like it’s rotting…”

“So now we potentially have some kind of zombie- _thing_ after us, if it isn’t a victim of your own imagination,” Liam sighed, hand once more reaching for Theo’s jacket sleeve before sliding down to grip his hand instead. “I’m going to punch Scott twice.”

“Once for you and once for me?” Theo raised an eyebrow. “How poetic, but it still isn’t going to work.”

“It’s distracting you, though,” and Liam did grin a little then, squeezing his hand, before he stopped abruptly in the middle of the path. “Okay, please tell me it’s not me going crazy now and that there is actually water up ahead.”

“Like a kind of shallow pool,” Theo hummed. “Yes, I see it, too, which could mean that we’re both just going crazy now.”

“I like the option where neither of us are crazy,” Liam huffed, and they both approached the edge of the pool slowly.

It seemed to brighten slightly the closer they got, the water sparkling in the sunlight which once more filtered through the leaves. It couldn’t be very deep, about a metre towards the centre from the looks of it, but that wasn’t what made Theo stumble back and fall to his knees.

It was the girl curled up in the bottom of the pool with the gaping hole in her chest and her dark hair drifting in the water that did that.

“Tara,” he said, and it was practically a whimper as it left his lips, claws scrabbling in the dirt as he backed up, panicked and shaky until he was bumping into Liam’s legs behind him.

She responded to her name, legs curling out from under her as she rose, walking steadily to the lip of the pool until only her ankles were submerged, dark hair wet and dripping slowly onto the surface of the pool, skin pale and bloated.

“Tara,” he said again, eyes burning, throat thick with _something_ as his fingers scrabbled at his own chest, claws slicing through his shirt as he felt her heart beating in his chest, faster than usual.

Her eyes followed that movement, mouth twisting into a scowl as her own hand reached up, skirted across the hole in her chest and the blood which had soaked her tank top, spreading slowly across the thin material which clung to her like a second skin. She didn’t speak, but as one hand plunged into the hole and her other reached towards Theo, her intent was obvious.

He didn’t have to live through her ripping her own heart from his chest over and over in his own personal hell to know what came next.

“No,” and it was definitely a whimper that crossed his lips next as his fingers curled around Liam’s ankle and he twisted back around to his hands and knees, crawling away but failing even at that, shaking too much for his limbs to actually be of any use.

It wasn’t until Liam was curling his hands beneath his armpits and dragging him upright that he remembered he wasn’t actually affected by this like Theo was, not that that information was much use to him when all he could do was cling onto Liam’s shoulders and hope that whatever made Tara appear made her disappear before she killed him.

Liam was saying something, practically shouting judging by the vibrations of his chest, but he couldn’t hear anything over the ringing in his ears, eyes locked onto Tara as she stepped forward, up and out of the pool, her toes curling in the dirt. She cocked her head, scowl softening slightly, but then she was right in front of him. His chest was heaving with the effort of each breath, one hand clutched tightly around Liam’s and the other on his shoulder, Liam’s own arms around him, holding up and against him.

There was almost the barest hint of a smile curling her lips when she reached forwards, fingers tracing one of the rips he’d made in his shirt. She was ice cold to the touch, and when she reached the place where her heart beat the hardest in his chest she dug down slightly, nail biting into his skin.

“Please,” he begged, too far gone to be ashamed at the fact. “Please. I’m _sorry_. I’m so sorry, Tara… _please_.”

She really was smiling then, teeth showing and everything, and he just caught a whiff of that sickly sweet, rotting smell right before she plunged her hand into his chest.

~

It was his sense of smell that came back first. Slowly, as he was inching towards awareness, something that was a little bit like worry and panic coating the air. Then it was taste, his tongue heavy with the metallic copper of his own blood, then sound, with slow, heavy breathing that wasn’t his own and the steady thump of another heartbeat. Touch came a while after that, something soft and warm under his body, the brush of hair by his hip, cool air brushing the bare skin of his torso.

His sight came last as his eyelashes fluttered against his cheeks, and it wasn’t until then that he managed to piece everything together. He was in some sort of guest room laying on the bed with Liam curled next to him, head resting by his hip, curled up around him. His shirt was gone and his _everything_ ached, but there were no visible marks and as he dragged questing fingers along his chest. Her heart was still beating in his chest. He was still alive.

There was a groan, a little something that sounded like a growl, and then Liam was blinking up at him clearly, shifting so he was laying on his stomach with his chin resting on his folded arms which rested atop Theo’s stomach.

“Hey, you’re awake,” he said, then smiled, yawning widely. “I thought you died, for a while.”

“So did I,” Theo frowned, just a little, lifting a heavy hand and setting it atop Liam’s head, surprised when all he did was nuzzle into his wrist instead of trying to shove him away like he normally would. He wound his fingers through his hair, laughing a little when Liam groaned as he tugged on the strands by the nape of his neck and scratched blunt fingernails there, thumb smoothing the sensitive skin.

“You aren’t going to ask what happened?” Liam asked after a while of this, still nosing his way across his wrist, breath warm and a little comforting, even if Theo didn’t necessarily want to admit that.

“I figured you’d eventually tell me when you grew tired of waiting,” he eventually responded, shifting his weight a little as he became all too aware of how close Liam was, practically plastered against him from waist to ankle.

“Hmm,” Liam hummed, smiling again a little dopily, still so clearly half-asleep that it was a little ridiculous. “So after you started calling out to your sister you sort of went a little… well, _crazy._ You started clawing at your own chest as though you were trying to rip out your heart, and it was all I could do to stop you. I had to knock you out a few times.”

“How many?” Theo found himself sharing Liam’s smile now as their conversation reminded him of one they’d had so many months ago on the way back from the zoo, though their roles were now reversed.

“Eighteen,” Liam grinned quite happily, also seemingly enjoying the irony. “I counted knowing you would ask. During your periods of unconsciousness I also managed to figure out what was actually wrong with you and what the weapon was, as well. Go ahead,” he nipped at his wrist playfully, eyes crinkling, “you can shower me with praise now.”

“Not until I hear _this_ explanation,” Theo removed his hand from Liam’s hair, earning himself another groan, this one pitching more towards disappointment.

“Fine, fine,” Liam huffed. “Remember what the pack in Wexford told us; that we wouldn’t like what we found at the end of the rainbow anyway? Well, while you were off busy being unconscious I discovered that the rainbow actually ended in that little pool that we found, and it was the water that was causing your hallucinations. That’s the weapon. I bottled some of it up and dragged your ass back to civilisation- which took hours by the way, until this man in a truck offered me a lift to the nearest town- and bought us a night in this B&B. After that it was a quick phone call to Stiles- who is royally pissed that he got to miss out on your freak-out, by the way- and then it became apparent what the difference between you and me is that meant you were targeted and not me.”

“And that difference is?” Theo whispered, not entirely sure that he wanted to know the answer, half-surprised he'd managed to gather much of anything from Liam's jumbled explanation.

“You’ve killed before,” Liam whispered, tone softer than he’d ever heard it before. “It targets killers, Theo.”

“Sounds about right,” Theo winced anyway, despite having expected something like that. “And the water? What are you going to do with it?”

“Well, it shouldn’t hurt you now that it’s contained,” Liam frowned for a moment, so different from his previous smile. “I’m not sure how much I trust Stiles on that though, so we’re going to have to be careful. I figured we’d just take it back home and see what Deaton can make of it, and whether it can actually be used.”

“Home?” Theo said, returning his hand to Liam’s hair now that the difficult conversation was out of the way, scratching his neck in the way that he liked. “That sounds nice.”

“After mum kills us, you mean?” Liam huffed a little laugh at Theo’s disgruntled look. “Yeah, turns out that I had thirty-eight missed calls whilst we were out of signal range, and unfortunately I picked up on the thirty-ninth. She’s annoyed that I’m missing school, that we didn’t tell her the real meaning behind the trip and that you got hurt.”

“You told her what happened?” This time Theo sat up, glaring down at Liam even as he scrambled up right after his chin slipped off his arms, frowning at Theo’s sudden agitation.

“Well, she pretty much guessed that something was wrong with you seeing as how I was kind of having a mini-breakdown of my own,” he finally burst out after Theo raised an eyebrow at him pointedly.

“You were- _what_?” and now he was confused, which he hated being because as a general state of being confusion was one of the most irritating simply because it wasn’t solved so easily.

“I was freaking out because I thought you were dying you complete _asshole_ ,” Liam growled, and then, in a very typical-Liam fashion, he punched him in the jaw.

It was a good punch, solid, and it hit right on the mark, sending Theo crashing back against the headboard, head cracking against the wood. He was torn between punching Liam back and congratulating him on the hit for a moment before what he said really sunk in.

“You _care_ about me, don’t you?” he said, spitting out the word like it was a particularly nasty curse.

This time it was Liam who reeled back as though he was the one who had been hit. Theo couldn’t find it within himself to be satisfied with that.

“Is that such a surprise?” Liam finally snapped as he clambered to his feet, claws showing and eyes flashing golden just ever so briefly before he managed to get himself under control once more. “I can’t believe-“

“You care about me,” Theo cut him off, a note of wonder in his tone now as he climbed to his own feet, still a little unsteady, still aching like he’d just been ran over. “You actually, you-“

He cut himself off this time, because he was right in front of Liam now and he was cradling his jaw ever-so-gently, softer than he’d ever done anything in his life, thumb running over his cheek until it pulled at the corner of his mouth. He felt Liam’s unsteady breath against his cheek they were that close, and it was as warm as he was if not even more so, heady in a way that wasn’t fair.

It was equally as unfair the way Liam practically trembled as he repeated, slowly, so each syllable was enunciated clearly, “I care about you, Theo Raeken. For better or worse.”

“Probably worse,” Theo admitted, lips quirking, and then he was pressing a slow kiss on Liam’s, open mouthed so he could taste his next breath, just as slow as Liam had spoken.

It was possibly the nicest thing that Theo had ever experienced, not counting the first bath he’d had since he’d gotten out of hell because that was practically _heavenly_ , and he was pretty certain that nothing short of a lot of bare skin and time alone with Liam would beat that. The quiet little whine that Liam made when he pulled away came pretty close though, and it was almost enough to make him lean back in.

“Theo,” he said, in a breathy little voice, and then, “It’s four in the morning, the airport is two and a half hours away and our flight isn’t until eight tonight. That’s a lot of empty time.”

“That-” Theo smirked, “-sounds like a proposition.”

“Only if you’re saying yes,” Liam sighed, sounding a little unsure of himself now.

Theo kissed him again for that one, biting his lip and then running his tongue along it. He remembered the way Liam's eyes tracked him when he stretched and the blush that always coated his cheeks when he was caught. He remembered the almost fond looks, and the fact that Liam cared about him, for whatever strange reason his mind had managed to come up with.

Then he smiled and said, “I can think of some things that can fill the time.”


End file.
